Hands On: Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit

Even queuing to play this game was an exciting experience. Defining the word ‘flash’, EA had provided about £1 million worth of exotic cars to ogle at, so by the time I got to sit down and play the game I was truly pumped.

Unfortunately Need for Speed’s biggest rival this year is going to be anticipation.  Let me explain. In my mind Criterion’s previous racer – Burnout Paradise – is arcade racing perfection.  The handling is spot on; it’s faster than Superman with the runs and it looks superb.  Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit has a lot to live up to.

Things start off well as the game looks absolutely stunning.  The car models are extremely detailed and are deformable, and the track I played - whilst not up to the standards of the cars – looked good.  This game is all about the cars though, and they are shined to perfection.

The handling is nice and weighty but it lacks the fun factor that Burnout has.  Perhaps it’s down to using real world cars, but powersliding was a) harder to do well and b) nowhere near as satisfying as I was expecting.  The game seemed to lack a bit of speed as well.  I (sneakily) tried out several cars and found that the issue affected them all – the speed dial is stuck at seven, when really this game needs at least a nine.

It would be nice to also have a bit more traffic on the roads.  There was some, but it was so few and far between I actually forgot it was there at all.  The racing as it stands is intense but the tracks can look a bit barren.  Denser traffic would take the game to a whole new level.

The cops are relentless, and for once they don’t just go after you – every racer is stalked throughout the course.  Criterion has managed to achieve the perfect balance between difficulty and just plain frustration – yes the cops will bother and hound you, but it’s enjoyable and never gets to the point where it ruins the actual racing, although the cheats do have helicopters!

The power ups I had access to were quite miserly – a turbo boost which was very helpful, and a stinger which reminded me of the banana skins in Mario Kart.  Tantalisingly locked out were weapons such as ‘EMP’ – I’m looking forward to exploring these further as they will add a nice layer of strategy.

I came away from the game desperate to play more – and if they can turn the speed up a bit this game might just deliver a knockout blow to Burnout and take the arcade racing crown.